Ismail Serageldin spoke of the dissonance between the Islamic world and the West and explained some of the reasons for this dissonance. He also made the case for the importance of Egypt. What happens in Egypt he argued, affects what happens in the Arab world, which in turn influences what happens in the rest of the Muslim world, and consequently impacts the relationship between these countries and the Western world. He argued that the "new generation of texters, bloggers, Facebook and Twitter devotees" want an open, free and democratic society -- and he maintained that there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

Speaker Biography: Ismail Serageldin is the director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and chairs the Boards of Directors for each of the Egyptian library's affiliated research institutes and museums.